Radical proposals to cut costs at Alexander Lebedev's Independent titles and the London Evening Standard are being planned, including encouraging journalists to work from home.

In an email to staff on Friday, the Independent editor, Chris Blackhurst – who is also the group editorial director – said the changes will mean some journalists working from home as the papers' publisher considers locating all its titles on a single floor in its current base in London's Kensington.

The newspapers – the Independent, i, the Independent on Sunday and the Evening Standard – rent office space from the Daily Mail & General Trust in its Derry Street headquarters.

But managers at the titles, which are run by Alexander's son Evgeny Lebedev, are anxious to cut the expense of leasing two office spaces on different floors.

Blackhurst also explained that the papers are to focus more on their digital platforms. He began by saying that the company is "examining whether it is feasible to locate all editorial staff" on one floor, adding: "This will help us make a considerable savings on the cost of renting floor space in this building."

He continued:

"So therefore we're exploring whether some journalists can work from home. We will be testing this in the coming Olympics period.

We hope it will be welcome to the staff affected as they will be able to save on the time and cost of commuting.

We're also making a major commitment to boost our digital output and we will be devoting more resources to our web and social media efforts, and fully integrating these with our print journalism to produce a truly 24/7 operation in the months ahead."

In fact, though he refers to "exploration", it is clear that the Independent trio's commercial staff will have to quit their current office by 1 October this year.

In editorial terms, it means locating 190 Independent journalists and 130 Standard editorial staff plus other departments on one floor in a building that is bulging at the seams.

Derry Street also houses the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Metro, all of DMGT's advertising sales staff plus numerous commercial and support departments.

The sudden announcement immediately prompted rumours that Evgeny and his father, Alexander, might be on the verge of disposing of their papers.

My understanding is that nothing could be further from the truth. They remain passionately committed to the Independent and the Standard. They enjoy the international prestige that attaches to the titles.

However, the overall loss every year runs into millions and they cannot write ever-increasing cheques. They see the latest measure as a matter of prudence.

At the same time, Independent Print's managers and Blackhurst are keen to pioneer home-working, initially, it is thought, by specialist correspondents. There is no question of subediting from home, evidently.

There is a belief that locating all the titles on one floor will lead to further editorial integration between the Independent and the Standard.

Two key editorial departments, business and sport, have already been merged and this is regarded to have been a success.

However, news of the relocation has not been greeted well by many Standard staff. Though their newspaper is distributed free, it has proved to be commercially viable. Some weeks it returns a healthy profit and it is expected to make an annual profit by the end of next year.

Standard journalists believe the relocation of the Indy titles to their floor will be too much of a squeeze. "Why should we suffer," said one staffer. "This move sounds farcical. The Standard is thriving." By implication the source was implying that the Indy is not.

However, managers believe there is enough space to accommodate all the company's journalists and that Standard staff will eventually see the benefits of the move.

• This blog was amended on 22 June. The original referred to "the Independent trio" instead of "the Independent trio's commercial staff". This has been corrected